"AN ACADEMIC DEFINITION of Lynchian might be that the term "refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter."

- David Foster Wallace,US Premiere magazine,September 1996

Having watched Birdemic for the fifth time, I am convinced I have watched a David Lynch film - in spirit at the least, if not in authorship. Never mind that James Nguyen kind of dresses like Lynch and that his public persona stinks of a put-on. Never mind if the film seems 'self-aware' and seems to knowingly subvert horror movie cliches around its sexual subtext - The couple barricade their motel room from the birds with the mattress they fucked on, and they later fend the birds (reference to storks, perhaps?) off with coat hangers - I write this note not in order to cry foul, but to express an appreciation of a certain quality I've come to find in this feature film supposedly directed by James Nguyen. Birdemic may or may not be a sincere attempt at a genre film, but the intention doesn't deter the strength of the work in my humble opinion. In short: If this IS a hoax, I consider the hoax part of the 'grand vision' of the project.

Having said this, here's my pet theory concerning the conception of the film.

Filmmakers Bobby Hacker and Evan Husney described what they encountered in Park City, Utah: "We saw this rundown Nissan Quest just crawling down Main Street plastered with posters and fake blood . . . And just blasting this indescribable avian-like, screeching, like eagle attacks."

James Nguyen was handing out flyers to passers-by from his van, adorned with stuffed birds and paper signs that read "BIDEMIC" (mispelt).

My theory is that David Lynch - the same guy who sat next to a cow to campaign for an Oscar Nomination for Laura Dern for her role inINLAND EMPIRE, and has been displayed an affinity for playful viral marketing techniques since the launch of his website - was experimenting with consumer-grade DV and at some point decided to use James Nguyen and Moviehead Pictures as a front for some of his projects. This isn't that far a stretch. Lynch has grown increasingly prone to re-contextualizing his own work; Mulholland Drive started of as a pilot for a TV series, sequences in INLAND EMPIRE existed previously as the series RABBITS on David Lynch.com. James's previous video projects are described as noir-throwbacks, and sounds like they could have been homemade experiments initiated by the creator of Eraserhead and Twin Peaks himself.

"I had a dream. In fact, it was on the night I met you. In the dream, there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren't any robins and the robins represented love. And for the longest time, there was this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love. And it seemed that love would make any difference, and it did. So, I guess it means that there is trouble until the robins come."

- Sandy, Blue Velvet

Aside from the fact that moviehead pictures's logo seems to be a modified version of David Lynch.com's spiral logo, Birdemic shares lot of the imagery from David Lynch's films. The aesthetic of the film itself - sans serif fonts, musical numbers - is Lynchian. The ending in particular appears to reference Laura Dern's dream in Blue Velvet. The crew of BV have also noted Lynch's decision to use a particularly artificial-looking bird in the movie's conclusion.

Many other scenes seem to come from Lynch's sensibilities and uses many of his archetypes. Consider:

- The man in the cowboy suit who threatens the protagonists with a gun- The opening sequence with credits over the shot of the road (Lost Highway)- Platinum blond mother-daughter archetypes- Dance sequence over gaudy colors not unlike Mulholland Drive's jitterbug scene- The bizarre TV news broadcast about seals and race cars driven by hollywood celebrities.- The sex scenes are uncomfortable and particularly Lynchian (Imagine Peace?)- The slide about the Solar Panel in the business meeting scene ... Sans Serif fonts again, over a big black rectangle

To make things more troubling, the "bad editing" seems to be very considered and deliberate. Take the diner scene with the waitress at the beginning with the dubbed-over voice and cuts making the waitress seem to inhabit multiple spaces without breaking the flow of the scene (an allusion to the name-changing Diane/ Betty waitress at Winkie's?) This blatant 'mistake' sets up the haphazard tone of Birdemic and is never repeated throughout the rest of the film, suggesting the direction of someone who is used to creating cognitive dissonance rather than an amateur.

A lot of the shots seem mirror the camera work in Inland Empire in terms of editing and framing. Consider Lynch's lo-fi tendencies and love for the absurd, which often manifests in lesser-known projects such as 'On the Air', 'Dumbland' and the comic strip 'The Angriest dog in the universe" and you'll be hard-pressed not to find, at the surface, a stylistic common ground between his work and Birdemic.

But I could be wrong, maybe James is just and individual who has been influenced by Lynch and has assimilated some of his themes and styles. Who can tell? But it doesn't deter from the fact that the film is extremely effective at hinting at what may or may not be lurking underneath, pecking away at our subconscious. Laughing at, laughing with, being laughed at.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Friday, May 14, 2010

From May 15th to 23rd my work will be showing at the Baracca part of Art Pie Amsterdam in Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek Amsterdam. It is not my original art, but there is not a gallery in the world who could even temporarily take my artwork from me, as I would not be able to sleep. Thankyou very much to Ibrahim R. Ineke for being so kind and liking my work so much. I just wish I could have produced something new to knock them out.

================= I edited my movie post, sorry it is so long and I'm sure a lot of you cant be bothered with it, but that really is the shortest I could make it. Atleast make sure you see Tokyo Fist, Love Exposure and Pinocchio 964 someday.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

For my soon to be officially released PIZZA PARTY character cards, here are some of the backgrounds i've done for the series. I lay the characters over the top of these animation style. I'm meeting with a local gallery owner today about partnering on some art arcade games, this is something i've wanted to do FOREVER & i'm very pleased to see the balls falling into place.Ordinary conversation in my house. Me. "Man, you know how some people have creative dry spells where they're all creatively infertile? I'm like that..." Katie interrupts, "Like that guy who can't stop raping old women in that japanese comic?" Me, "Yes, but no, i'm like that exploded oil derrick that keeps gushing stuff out & can't be contained, but yes, i suppose i'm also like that other guy too."

Saturday, May 08, 2010

WATERSHIP DOWNI saw this when I was 4 or something and I think it is partly responsible for the amount of disappointing viewing experiences I have had ever since with all kinds of art. I probably measure so many things by the high standard this set. I assumed that since this was a family film, real horror films would be ten times more terrifying. But this is still one of the scariest films ever made. I love my films emotionally harrowing. It was a real delight to find a few years ago that there was a companion film called Plague Dogs, which only recently became uncut on DVD.

INLAND EMPIRE and DAVID LYNCH It is my favourite Lynch film and it may be my favourite film of all. I wasn’t as big on Eraserhead as most people are and I ignored Lynch for a long time assuming that he was not for me, so it was a surprise to find out that such a famous guy could make things that felt very close to me. I think Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Meand Lost Highway are his most powerful works, the warm dreamy style makes me feel incredible and resonates with me more than the black and white stuff. The music and those red curtains feel like my own memories from long ago and I feel it gels with my personal approach to art. After experiencing Inland Empire with all that prolonged wandering in dark corridors and short bursts of terrifying faces, I left intensely pleasured and very sad that someone else had achieved some of the things I had always wanted to achieve myself.I don’t think it gets enough recognition for how scary it is. I’d like to also mention the start and end credit sequences of Lost Highway when the camera is speeding across the road to what I was amazed to find was David Bowie( since I only had a fairly small fondness for Bowie), I think those sequences with that music is some of the most incredible feelings a movie has ever gave me, makes me feel ELATED!

POSSESSION and ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI This has the finest hysterical energy I have ever witnessed in a film, not the noisiest movie ever made, but the noise is exhilarating. To me Sam Neil was always just “that Jurassic Park guy” but this gave me a lot of respect for him(not that he was bad in JP, Mouth of Madness or Event Horizon).I wasn’t expecting more horror from the rest of Zulawski’s work, actually there was a lot more horror than I expected but I was disappointed by all his other films and I gave up getting more (I still haven’t saw Public Woman, Mad Love, Boris Godunov and Blue Note). Szamanka did not live up to reputation and the good music was overplayed to exhaustion, I don’t get why people think Third Part of the Night is one of his better films, The Devil was quite good in places, On the Silver Globe was fascinating at times but I’d rather look at these screenshots than watch the whole film Amazing screens. If you like Sophie Marceau you’ll enjoy his romantic films.I didn’t think any of the films were bad, they all were interesting and were obviously done by an individualistic director who is pleasingly different from all other arthouse and shock directors, his sense of humor is unique too, but nothing came close to Possession. Tim Lucas raved about L'important c'est d'aimer but that somehow did nothing for me either. But I did think Jacques Dutronc was really good in two Zulawski films, he came across deeply eccentric in a very real way and his eyes are fascinating.I’m sorry Mr Zulawski, I don’t get your films except for Possession, The Devil and small parts of your other films. Am I a teeny bopper?

TOKYO FIST and SHINYA TSUKAMOTO

Shinya Tsukamoto deserves to be just as big as Miike or any other auteur today. He has a more consistently satisfying body of work than any other director I have ever encountered. Like the way I overlooked David Lynch, I avoided Tetsuo The Iron Man because I assumed such a popular cult classic would not be my thing, and that was another time when I was amazed to find something so amazing that was so widely available and under my nose the whole time.I watched Tokyo Fist first and I adored it immediately. Remember I was talking about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and the subversive intensity that used to be associated with Japanese imports in the late 80s and early 90s? Tokyo Fist EMBODIES that energy. The film is like a power drink. It has an incredible soundtrack by Chu Ishikawa (who always does music for Tsukamoto), Tsukamoto plays the main character (he acts a lot in his own films and for a lot of other directors including Miike), Kahori Fujii is really great and she has a beauty that that reminds me of a much older Japanese ideal that you don’t see often enough today. You have to see it.

I havent been able to get a hold of Nightmare Detective 2 and Female, but I have seen everything else and all of them are good films. There are only two or three Tsukamoto films I’m not crazy about, but Tokyo Fist, Tetsuo Iron Man, Vital, Haze, Gemini are all essential. A Snake of June and Bullet Ballet are also highly recommended if you need more.Vital is nothing like all his other films, it has an extremely soft lovely feel even though it is about a medical student who is dissecting his girlfriend to find secrets about her life and death, it is very romantic.Haze is a 50 minute claustrophobic nightmare with Kahori Fujii again. Not scary exactly, but still a nightmarishly horrible situation that you will have dreamt about, and it seems like a more logical approach to make a horror film than 99.7% other film attempts I’ve ever seen.Gemini is an Edogawa Rampo story about an evil twin, but all the delight is in the visuals. The first appearance of one of the beggars is so bizarre and tense because he acts in a scary and unpredictable way and the further scenes of beggars are amazing because their costumes are burning bright with gorgeous color and their dancing is fascinating.Most of you probably know about the first Tetsuo film, but I will say that the scene where the woman attacks the main guy in the subway is one of the sexiest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie, just seeing her changing from this timid office worker to a wild dripping maniac is really hot. There is a third Tetsuo film coming out this year, it is filmed in America in english but is still essentially a Japanese film, the initial response has been bad, but the second got a bad response too despite having some incredible moments. Everyone wants more of the first film.I cant wait for more Tsukamoto films across the years, hopefully a lot of decades.

LOVE EXPOSURE and SION SONOThis is currently only in Region2 but do whatever you can to see this movie.You may think I’m going over the top about this film, perhaps there is something about this time in my life that I reacted to Love Exposure so strongly, but I’m pretty sure anyone who sees it will be impressed.The previous week I watched Sono’s Strange Circus, which was decent film with some striking rooms, an odd plot about a horrible father making his mother and daughter switch places, but it didn’t come anywhere near close to the power of Love Exposure, which I watched the day after. I’m going to get more of his films, but only 6 or 7 of his films have had a western DVD release.Sono’s most famous film is Suicide Circle/Club and he seems to love being hated in Japan and he is currently stirring up controversy with his upcoming Black Metal docudrama Lords of Chaos based on the book of the same name, which I think might be an awful idea since the book is supposed to be wrong about a lot of facts and Sono has no real interest in the music scene. Whatever happens, it will probably be a decent movie. Varg has threatened to kill him if Sono makes the film, but Sono likes the danger.

If I picked this film up in the shops I wouldn’t have been interested, as I have an aversion to the type of stylish highschool kids on the cover, but this is a fucking masterpiece. Love Exposure is really hard to summarise, one main thread of the plot is about a son of a priest committing sins to confess to his father because his father wont believe him if he says he has not sinned. Another thread is the son believing he will find the love of his live by taking upskirt photos with his kung-fu pervert technique. It is FOUR HOURS long but it never feels boring for a second because an incredible amount of things happen in the movie, it is not padded or stretched out in the least. It is a really beautiful love story.

I’d like to get to tell Sono what this film meant to me as he seemed somewhat drained and upset after the film finished and everyone regarded it as a probable peak of his career which would be difficult to match again. When it ended I was sad there was not more, even after four hours. I’ve never been so shaken by a movie, for the start of this week I was quite down and wished I could make some exciting change to my life to match the excitement of the lives in that movie even if I would hate to be in their specific situations. I was also a little bewildered by what Sono had achieved and I was creatively envious, because he does things I could probably never do. I don’t really do plot and characters in this way and this is one of the few times when I really cared about such things in a movie. The very feel of watching this is like no other movie. I was immensely inspired and it was one of those times I was so touched that I wanted to spend each second of my life more wisely. I’m still totally astonished by it.=========================LISZTOMANIA and KEN RUSSELL

Ken Russell is just as crazy as any other director from any part of the world. Just watch that trailer! Rick Wakeman and Roger Daltrey do a really amazing soundtrack. It may seem just way too silly to start with, but trust me, stick with this film, it is amazing. Incredibly funny.

PINOCCHIO 964 and SHOZIN FUKUI

Fukui could be accused of being a thief of the first Tetsuo film, because his early films are very similar, but he actually worked on Tetsuo. Rubbers Lover is okay, but Pinocchio 964 is really incredible. Easily the craziest film I’ve seen if you mean shouting maniac crazy. It is unique to me in that I have never seen a film before which used lengthy scenes focusing on one thing to create an unbearable tension. There is a part where a girl has a dripping wet face and she stays still for ages without moving, I cant watch it without squirming. The ending is INSANE!Fukui has came out with several short films in recent years after a long time of nothing, but they are very obscure and I probably wont get my hands on them for years.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Here's the Euro Tour 2010 Poster i did for the Rats NYC & Sweden's Trubbel. I am very stoked to have come up with using a half-track for their tour vehicle! Now if only in real life...Here's the label i did for LETHAL INJECTION HOT PEPPER SAUCE. A great sauce by the way. On your local store shelves in the future.Here's a picture of GG Allin i did for my Portland Zine Symposium flier. I decided it would be better if i used one of my drawings for the graphic instead of a graphicized photo. I've become fairly obsessed with GG lately, i didn't really get his whole shtick when i first discovered him, i think i was trying to be "more grown up" at the time, so a grown-ass man acting like a rampaging chimpanzee was not what i wanted, but times change, & here i am. There are some hilarious GG moments on my BRAIN STORM blog right now.I've been doing a couple sheets of these FUNNEH FACES a week. It's absurdly satisfying. Alot of it involves digging through old Whitman & Key comics & trying to find off-model drawings of characters & then changing them a bit more.

These are studies for some inks I'm working out now. I've been obsessed with recess lighting for some time. I was kinda imagining that this is one part of the city, the suburbs, then eventually I want to come up with the center part, and then the outskirts.